Twelve giant cylinders enlighten the city

The beauty of twelve giant enlightened cylinders invited the citizens and guests of Frankfurt to discover literature of Quebec.

The interactive installation played short flipbookstyle movies inspired by Québec literature translated into German. LOOP takes 19th century technologies of the zoetrope, music box and handcar, and fuses them into a retro-futuristic motion picture machine.

 

 

Seated inside the cylinder, the audience experienced how their movement turned a series of still images into an animation accompanied by a real time generative soundtrack. The images, tinted by a strobe, are reminiscent of the earliest movies. The speed of the experience is all determined by how fast you move the bar.



LOOP was presented in the city centre of Frankfurt and showcased on the occasion of Canada´s Guest of Honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2020/2021.

Situated at the Rathenauplatz in the heart of the Frankfurt commercial district, it created a space for rest, encounter, lively interaction and exploration – an atmosphere urgently needed in the vibrant, busy and always hurrying city center.

 
 

Glamorous Opening

The presentation of LOOP was celebrated with a reception with the Head of Cultural Affairs of the city of Frankfurt Dr. Ina Hartwig, the Delegate General of Québec in Germany Munich-Berlin Elisa Valentin, Jeanne Charlotte Vogt (artistic & general director NODE), Louise Lantagne, president of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the artist and creator of LOOP Olivier Girouard (artistic director of Ekumen) and the author Catherine Mavrikakis.

 

Québec’s artists in Frankfurt

The presentation of LOOP was an initiative supported by the government of Québec. It was designed to showcase Québec at the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair, where Canada is Guest of Honour. With this first collaboration, NODE wants to initiate a longterm collaboration with and presentation of Quebec’s creative technologies and media arts scene in Frankfurt.

 



The Artists

Olivier Girouard

Visual Artist

Montréal, CA

ekumen.com

Olivier goes off the beaten path to find inspiration for his works: a link between two co-occurring ideas; a sound profile undergoing a transformation. He strives to reinvent our relationship with hearing, by working with artists in dance and visual arts.

As a producer and promoter of audio works, he is the artistic director of Ekumen. He has won several awards, including first prize of the Hugh Le Caine Prize (2008) presented by the Socan Foundation, and the JTTP first prize (2009).

Jonathan Villeneuve

Artist

Québec City, CA

jonathan-villeneuve.com

Jonathan Villeneuve is an artist with DIY sensibilities who creates poetic machines by assembling familiar materials and giving them new functions. His works move, emit light and make sounds, allowing viewers to come to their own conclusions about the device’s imaginary function. He is a graduate of the media and visual arts program at UQAM (2006) and of the MFA/Open Media program at Concordia University (2009). His solo work has been presented regularly in Québec and elsewhere in Canada. As well as participating in numerous collaborative digital-art projects presented at festivals and events in Europe, in June 2014 he presented his solo work at the International Triennial of New Media Art at the National Museum of China in Beijing. In September 2015, he unveiled a monumental digital public artwork, Le grand bleu du Nord, created for the new multi-purpose arena in Québec City.

OTTOBLIX

Québec City, Canada

ottoblix.com

Founded in 2004, the company has more than a decade of experience with multidisciplinary projects. Ottoblix has built a loyal clientele by being creative, attentive to client needs and by creating custom teams for each project.


Concept

Olivier Girouard & Jonathan Villeneuve and Ottoblix

Collabrators

Industrial design: Generique Design
Electronics & programming: Thomas Fredericks
Technical support: Adsum Lab
Mechanical consultant: Jérôme D. Roy (Terrafirma)
Audio programming: Dominic Thibault

Frankfurt production / NODE team

Artistic direction: Jeanne Charlotte Vogt
Project management: Johannes Scherg
Production: Andreas Behl

Photos: Laura Nickel, 2021

And our team of visitor guides.




The presentation of LOOP in Frankfurt is a collaboration of: